


A Hundred Lives

by Moogle89



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, The Defenders (Marvel TV), The Punisher (TV 2017), X-Men - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate History, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Eventual Romance, F/M, Female Friendship, Flashbacks, Male-Female Friendship, Mutant Powers, Mutants, Old Friends, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, POV Female Character, Scotland, Scottish Character, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-08
Updated: 2020-03-17
Packaged: 2020-10-12 12:21:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,390
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20564243
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Moogle89/pseuds/Moogle89
Summary: Three years after the events of the Blip and the world has returned to a new normal. New York City has become the new hub for all powered people, from vigilantes like the Defenders to the Avengers and Inhumans, the City is buzzing with life. In all that is Shannon Cousland, a retired SHIELD agent and mutant. Having the power to heal herself, has her body age very slowly. Looking like a 28-year-old, she was actually born in 1610 in Scotland. But something big is happening which forces Shannon out of retirement, facing foes she thought were long gone.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Just the prologue for now, chapter 1 going to come soon. Be surprised, it's a lot of wish fulfillment haha also title is a work in progress!
> 
> my first story anywhere public, excited and scared! posting to tumblr too under moogle5
> 
> hope you enjoy it!

Looking out on the panorama of Hell’s Kitchen at dawn always made me feel nostalgic. The tall skyscrapers, the busy streets and the greyish air were charming in their own ways, but they couldn’t beat the blue skies, wild waves and dramatic landscape of my home. Scotland was home. Scotland was what made me myself. As cliche as it might sounded, you can take a girl out of Scotland, but you can’t take Scotland out of that girl.

Sipping my tea and staring out the window, I was lost in my thoughts so that I didn’t hear the slight knocking at the door. However, it grew louder and louder until it shook me awake. Walking through my open kitchen, I put my mug on the living room table and made my way to the front door. The knocking turned into a banging when I turned the locks and opened the door.

“Fucking finally, thought you were still asleep”, said a gruff voice while walking into the flat like he owned it. Plopping down on the sofa, Logan looked to smug for my liking. “What would you have done if I was still asleep?”, I asked while closing the door and returning to the sofa to sit down. “I would have come the same way as one of the red fuckers.” I laughed out loud: “I would have loved to see that, you, climbing up the fire escape. You would have woken up everyone in the building!” “Hah hah, Shannon, very funny.” “I know I am a comedic genius. Now what do you want, Logan? It’s too early in the morning to start drinking with me even for you.”

I looked curiously onto Logan who uncharacteristically shifted in his seat. His smugness from early was gone. He was nervous, something that I hadn’t seen many times in our century long friendship. “Charles… he wanted me to check up on you. Something about what he saw in Cerebro.” I sighed. Charles Xavier only wanted to protect me, as he wanted to protect all mutants but the fact that I lived more than 300 years without Charles’ interference kind of made his protection attempts a bit useless.

“And you are his messenger boy now? He knows I am fine. And the thing in Cerebro? We are in fucking New York City! What are you expecting? Of course, a bunch of mutants will turn up here, especially with the heroes, vigilantes and whoever that are running around freely and unbothered. New York is a dream city for us.”, I observed while standing and walking towards the kitchen.

“Shannon… He was frightened! There are mutants here that are powerful. Nearly as powerful as you are and we both know what might happen when they do something stupid! Especially now with all those other powered people around.”

Logan followed me through to the kitchen. His demeanour was serious, and he watched me intently. Something was brewing in the city that never sleeps and mutants were involved. I turned to him and shouted:

“And what does Charles want us to do? I am not searching for them, Logan, I am retired. Go to SHIELD or the Avengers, hell go to fucking Jessica Jones if you want to find them.” 

Logan looked resigned, he knew why I didn’t want to get involved with any suspicious activities involved with powered people. The moment Tony Stark announced he was Iron Man, I put in my resignation to Fury and retired. I was tired. I wanted to settle down and live a life that I wasn’t able to have for the last 400 years. Now I was here living in Hell’s Kitchen living a relatively normal life, expect maybe the occasional drop in by the vigilantes and heroes of New York who needed healing. A boring life but not too boring, I thought.

Taking a deep breath, I composed myself from the outburst and explained calmly: “I won’t be doing anything actively, but you can tell Charles I will have an ear out and ask our powered friends if anything weird is going on. That’s it though. Nothing else.” Logan visibly relaxed. He nodded at me and gave me a side hug turning to go to the front door. He stopped shortly before opening it: “Your not-so-boring life suits you. Just 50 years ago, you would have been the first to run to find everything out.” I smiled at him sadly: “Running into danger is not my MO anymore. Having to fight your loved ones does that to you.”

Logan was about to answer when suddenly we heard a loud crash in my bedroom. Grabbing a kitchen knife, I followed Logan who ran across the room with his claws out. We stopped at the bedroom door and listened carefully. We were able to hear two muffled voices, female and male. The female was cursing while the male just grunted what sounded like in pain. I recognised them. Straightening myself up, I motioned Logan to stand down and opened the door: “Murdock, Jones! What the fuck are doing in my bedroom!” Matt Murdock, in his Daredevil suit, and Jessica Jones stared at me stunned. “You got a lot of explanation to do!”


	2. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shannon helps two Defenders in need of healing and gets involved in suspicious things.

The air was tense. Jessica and Matt were now standing in my living room while Logan returned to sit on the couch, and I returned the kitchen knife to its place. Matt looked terrible as he tried to hide his injuries. However, his awkward stance and his previous limping showed me that his fall through my bedroom window must have been bad.

“Matt, take off your trousers and sit down. Let me have a look.”, I gave him a stern look that I knew, even though he was blind, he could feel because he immediately followed my orders. While he was carefully removing his trousers, I reached underneath the coffee table and folded out a towel over the sofa. “Sit, Matt!”, I ordered. Without hesitation and with an elegance that only showed how often Matt Murdock had sat down on my couch to get healed, he lied down on the couch. I took a look at his injuries. His left ankle was twisted and already showed first signs of being swollen while tiny bits of glass stuck out his right femur. I knew that the ankle must have hurt the most therefore, I concentrated on it first. Carefully I placed my hands-on top of the injured part. Matt hissed but I shut everything around me out as I imagined how the ankle should look like when it was normal and healed. Slowly I felt a flow go through me towards Matt’s ankle. Matt gripped the sides of the sofa and tried to hold still. His body tensed up quickly but just as quickly relaxed again. I could feel a collective sigh go through the room. I leaned with my back against the sofa and closed my eyes while I slowly breathed in and out. Meanwhile Matt stood up and walk to his trousers left on the floor. No signs of his injured ankle were left, and he had his light-footed step back.

When he started to get dressed again, I shot up and reminded him: “You still have glass in your leg. Let me see to that too!” However, Matt shook his head and answered quickly: “No need, Shannon. We need you as strong as possible. I can walk and fight that’s already more than I deserve.” Jessica snorted sarcastically but my mind stopped at the part of their need for me: “Need me? And strong at that? Matt, Jessica, what happened?”. I crossed my arms and stared at the two Defenders. Jessica ignored me and went to my alcohol cabinet, taking out a bottle of Whisky and not even bothering to get a glass, she started to take long sips. She grabbed the right bottle as I had a dedicated Jessica Jones Whisky bottle because her hatred for glasses forced me to gift her a lot of my good Whisky the first couple of times, she visited my flat.

After she took her sips, Jessica shrugged her shoulders and started to explain: “Luke asked me to help him with a case in Harlem tonight. Something about a sketchy warehouse that doesn’t belong to the Harlem gangs but some other gang. At least that what Luke thought. Stupidly, I agreed to help him, but didn’t realise the guilt-ridden devil and the useless billionaire were going to help too.” Matt only commented by sighing heavily but Jessica ignored him and continued: “So we went in. Fought the gang. Typical stuff, until we ventured in to the warehouse and found something concerning in there. That’s why we need your help. Whatever happened there, it’s Avengers level shit.” That was Jessica’s contribution to this weird meet up as she returned to sip her whisky and looked out the window.

Logan huffed: “Avengers level shit. How about you go to them then? Or are ya scared?” Increasing the testosterone level in my flat to an unbearable level, Matt sneered towards Logan: “We do not work with the Avengers! Too much governmental involvement with them!” He wanted to go on, but I stopped his rant as soon as possible: “Enough, Matt. Logan likes to annoy people, ignore him.” I gave Logan a dirty look which just made him smirk. “Okay, you want my help with something in some warehouse in Harlem you went in yesterday. And yes, yesterday as it is fucking 7am. You see this is all very vague and not really convincing.” Matt looked guilty but didn’t butch or clarify: “It’s something big, Shannon. Blip kind of big.” Logan lost his smirk and we looked at each other. We had the same thoughts. This couldn’t be a coincidence. First Charles seeing something and then the Defenders finding something suspicious. Understanding that my retirement might had to take a break, Logan and I agreed without words and a nod that we had to investigate and help the Defenders.

We moved immediately which surprised Matt and Jessica. I went into my bedroom and opened my wardrobe, taking out a box I hadn’t touched for action in nearly two decades. Opening it, I inspected my gear. Not bothering with my suit, I took out my gun and holster, strapping it around my upper leg. Next, I took out two knifes. One was small, something that could be well hidden. I secured it on my lower leg close to my ankle, hidden but easily reached. The other knife was more of a dagger. It was old but well maintained. Weighing it in my hand, I quickly fastened it sideways on my back. I was ready. After taking enough replacement ammunition I re-joined the three others in the living room.

“Let’s go! Jessica, you lead.” I ordered and surprisingly everyone followed without moaning.


	3. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> New friends, and a old warehouse.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short chapter to be back, my last semester of Uni is coming to an end, dissertation writing is no fun.

We decided to take my car to get to Harlem as having Matt in his outfit would draw attention to us now that the city was waking up in the sunlight. Thirty minutes late, I parked the car in front of a run-down warehouse. Three figures were waiting for us at the entrance. We got out of the car and walked towards them. Colleen Wing, Luke Cage and Danny Rand looked exhausted and just opened the doors without a word when we arrived. Colleen led us through the surprisingly big warehouse while I walked next to Luke. I wanted to know more so I asked: “Are you okay? What happened here? Even Danny is uncharacteristically quiet.” Luke shook his head and responded quietly: “The boy’s just tired. We all are. This is more than we could have imagined yesterday. You’ll understand, Shannon…. Thanks for coming tho. Means a lot.” Not really satisfied with his answer but seeing that Luke wasn’t going to say more, I stopped my enquiries and slowed down to be in step with Logan. He just shrugged and took out one of his cigars and lit it up.

Our silent group stopped in front of a heavy door that looked like it belonged more in a bank safe than some random warehouse. Colleen looked around our group and straightened her back: “Shannon, Shannon’s friend” “Logan”, I interfered, and Colleen nodded and continued: “Shannon, Logan, prepare yourselves. Behind this door are more gang members and they are ready to fight. We managed to clear the first couple of meters but after that… let’s just say they are heavily armed.” That was a shit preparation for going into a fight. It left us mostly blind. So, I took the initiative, walked up to the door and turning to the group. I scanned the fighters that were standing in front of me and quickly thought about each of their skills. Most of them were close combat fighters, each with their own perks. We needed to be fast to get close to our opponents so that no one was seriously injured from the expected gunfire. Thinking about the best strategy, I motioned everyone to come closer, Jessica helping Matt. “We need to be quick. Surprise them. Don’t give them time to draw their guns. So, you have to listen to me and follow my orders. You want my help; you have to do as I said. Understood?” I looked around the group and I heard murmurs of yeses. “Matt, find your space, you know the environment in your own way. Colleen, have an eye out for him, stop anyone who even thinks about shooting Matt! Luke, you and Logan are our shields, you go in first, draw their attention towards yous. Jess, be our battering ram, I want them distracted. Danny, clean up those left behind. All know what to do?” Danny looked taken aback as he shook his head: “What are you going to do?” I didn’t even get a chance to reply before Logan patted Danny’s back and smirked: “Kid, let her do her thing. Best for all of us”. “Why is everyone calling me kid? I am 28 years old.” Giving him a stern look and an eye roll to Logan, that discussion was filed away for later. Stepping up to the door, I opened the door slightly, motioning Luke and Logan to go ahead. In a split-second, everyone jump up to action.


End file.
